Norwich City fan's dog eats play-off tickets

• 9 hours ago
 
• From the sectionNorfolk

Freddie ate three tickets for the Championship play-off final

A football fan was left in panic after his dog ate three tickets for his club's Championship play-off final.

Norwich City fan Matt Grimmer from Bradwell discovered Freddie the cockapoo had chewed up part of the tickets for Monday's game against Middlesbrough at Wembley.

"The barcode which you use to go through the gates at Wembley was totally defaced," he said.

Norwich City have reprinted the tickets for him and two of his sons.

Mr Grimmer, 41, will now be able to go to the game to see if his side can reach the Premier League.

'Not a rival'

He had put the tickets in what he thought was a safe place, so they would not get mixed up with the recycling.

Norwich City beat Ipswich Town 4-2 on aggregate to get to the play-off final

But two-year-old Freddie "obviously got a smell of them", he said, "he's a typical cockapoo" (a cross between a poodle and a cocker spaniel).

"He's full of life and energy and if he sees something he'll go for it and have a play and obviously he saw the tickets and the rest is history," he said.

"He chewed the edges and had actually eaten some of the tickets.

"My season tickets were with them as well and we thought he might have had one of those, but we found that underneath the rug."

Mr Grimmer said the dog was born in Norfolk and not Suffolk and so could not have an allegiance to rivals Ipswich Town.

"It happened to a QPR fan last year [and they won] so the omen is there for us to do it again this year - we will win 2-1," he said.

Canaries fans have had ticket disasters before - earlier this year Mikey Knights'mother accidentally cooked 16 tickets he had bought for a match at Brighton.